What an asshole. While there are cops out there who probably would jump at the chance to shoot someone full of holes, I'd wager most of them would be happy to go their entire careers without killing someone.

If you want to die that bad, just shoot yourself. Don't lay it off on someone else.

Treygreen13:bextraordinary: Ugh, shocked this made Fark. This is my friend's dad. :/ Seriously, mental health? Not a damn joke. We need to do better.

Who is "we" and what would you have done differently in this situation?

We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me. As a country, we need to take a long, hard look at the failure of our mental health system AND our failure to enforce existing gun control laws.

bextraordinary:Ugh, shocked this made Fark. This is my friend's dad. :/ Seriously, mental health? Not a damn joke. We need to do better.

Might I suggest a short vacation from FARK, then? Perhaps to another thread? Things are going to get ugly in here fast.

brandent:Generally I think the SWAT people are way better than regular cops.

The best response to that is that "it depends." In a COALEA accredited department which holds itsself up to a high standard, you are expected to see the cream of the crop, ex-military able to drill a hole in a board from 75 feet with an iron sighted 1911 type guy.

In a rural department, you might find JoeBob who ordered a patch off of EBAY that says SWAT and sewed it on his uniform (I'm not even joking)

bextraordinary:Treygreen13: bextraordinary: Ugh, shocked this made Fark. This is my friend's dad. :/ Seriously, mental health? Not a damn joke. We need to do better.

Who is "we" and what would you have done differently in this situation?

We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me. As a country, we need to take a long, hard look at the failure of our mental health system AND our failure to enforce existing gun control laws.

bextraordinary:We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me. As a country, we need to take a long, hard look at the failure of our mental health system AND our failure to enforce existing gun control laws.

Then write your "we" as in "congressperson" and tell them what you think, or elect a new one the next time they're up for re-election.

The article doesn't say anything about his medical or criminal history, the guy was taken down without killing him, and he got mental help. I understand how you'd be upset someone you know is on Fark, but this story is noteworthy for Fark in that it's a case of actual successful non-lethal police tactics, when the perpetrator wants to die.

I am ultra suspicious and critical of a lot of the police tactics, but this suicide-by-cop sh*t is nuts - pure cowardice. You want to die, so you're going to put some 20K/year guy and his family through all of that? Our tiny little community had its first ever cop death last year - in over 300 years of history - and it is just heartbreaking.

bextraordinary:Treygreen13: bextraordinary: Ugh, shocked this made Fark. This is my friend's dad. :/ Seriously, mental health? Not a damn joke. We need to do better.

Who is "we" and what would you have done differently in this situation?

We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me.

So knowing this, what exactly did you do?Did you report this to the police?To the mental health professionals in your community (hey, there is a nutjob who has a gun and is a known to attack people)?To the newspaper so they can investigate?

Treygreen13:bextraordinary: We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me. As a country, we need to take a long, hard look at the failure of our mental health system AND our failure to enforce existing gun control laws.

Then write your "we" as in "congressperson" and tell them what you think, or elect a new one the next time they're up for re-election.

The article doesn't say anything about his medical or criminal history, the guy was taken down without killing him, and he got mental help. I understand how you'd be upset someone you know is on Fark, but this story is noteworthy for Fark in that it's a case of actual successful non-lethal police tactics, when the perpetrator wants to die.

Well we are going to need a way to safely round up all the Gen-Xers when they start realizing how farked they are.

Mega Steve:If you want to die that bad, just shoot yourself. Don't lay it off on someone else.

Maybe they would if there weren't so many restrictive, draconian gun laws in this country. Why does America hate freedom (to shoot yourself) so much? If someone wants a gun, GIVE IT TO THEM. Otherwise, tragedies like this will never end.

tenpoundsofcheese:So knowing this, what exactly did you do?Did you report this to the police?To the mental health professionals in your community (hey, there is a nutjob who has a gun and is a known to attack people)?To the newspaper so they can investigate?

Did you try to get him committed?

What did you do?

I don't think she knows this guy well enough to have known he currently had a gun and was despondent. Father of a friend, and all that. We're just missing so much information.How was the gun obtained?Did he seek mental health assistance that was denied?What steps were taken to prevent this by the people he knows?If he really wanted to die, why not kill himself with the gun? Or run at an officer with a kitchen knife?

As it stands now, there's a whole lot of question marks and the only solution posed is "America needs to think long and hard about this." Which means absolutely nothing. Zero.

WhoopAssWayne:I am ultra suspicious and critical of a lot of the police tactics, but this suicide-by-cop sh*t is nuts - pure cowardice. You want to die, so you're going to put some 20K/year guy and his family through all of that? Our tiny little community had its first ever cop death last year - in over 300 years of history - and it is just heartbreaking.

you are overlooking that when a person is in the state of mind that they want to die, they are in the throes of madness. this is not a person at their best. this is not a person thinking rationally. this is when a person is at their worst of torment and in their mind it actually makes good sense and is completely appealing to be dead. they are at absolute rock bottom and without a shred of hope. they deserve sympathy, empathy and professional help.

This story is also noteworthy that he only got charged with 6 counts of reckless endangerment (wonder where the 6 came from) when he was basically blind firing at the cops which could have netted him a slew of charges typically.

Treygreen13:tenpoundsofcheese: So knowing this, what exactly did you do?Did you report this to the police?To the mental health professionals in your community (hey, there is a nutjob who has a gun and is a known to attack people)?To the newspaper so they can investigate?

Did you try to get him committed?

What did you do?

I don't think she knows this guy well enough to have known he currently had a gun and was despondent. Father of a friend, and all that. We're just missing so much information.How was the gun obtained?Did he seek mental health assistance that was denied?What steps were taken to prevent this by the people he knows?If he really wanted to die, why not kill himself with the gun? Or run at an officer with a kitchen knife?

As it stands now, there's a whole lot of question marks and the only solution posed is "America needs to think long and hard about this." Which means absolutely nothing. Zero.

We need a national directory of nut jobs and domestic abusers.That would be a start.

berylman:This story is also noteworthy that he only got charged with 6 counts of reckless endangerment (wonder where the 6 came from) when he was basically blind firing at the cops which could have netted him a slew of charges typically.

Ni:In my city they would've driven a tank into the building, shot the man a few times, found his dog and shot that, then charged his wife, impounded his vehicles, and lit the house on fire.

I think they got the first step right; hard to parse this cop-speak:

"The decision was made to deploy the Bearcat and establish an entry into the home through the garage," Arnold explained. "This caused Mr. Cowger to finally to begin communicating with our negotiators."

KrispyKritter:they are in the throes of madness. this is not a person at their best. this is not a person thinking rationally.

Yes, I understand your point, and it's a good one. It's just very hard when they take out their rage on those starting out in life - someone working a low wage starting position in law enforcement/government, a dangerous job - and paying this kind of a price. I'm highly critical of government / the police in general - but when this local guy died (his wife gave birth 1 week after his funeral) - it was pretty traumatic for our little town.

He was shot with 40mm plastic-bodied foam-nosed slug, and the foam nose was filled with concentrated pepper powder. Sounds like something out of a Jackass film. I'd like to see that in a super slo-mo replay.

bextraordinary:Treygreen13: bextraordinary: Ugh, shocked this made Fark. This is my friend's dad. :/ Seriously, mental health? Not a damn joke. We need to do better.

Who is "we" and what would you have done differently in this situation?

We, as a country. The guy had a documented history of mental illness AND a documented history of domestic violence, and yet still managed to get a gun and put multiple lives at risk. It's unacceptable to me. As a country, we need to take a long, hard look at the failure of our mental health system AND our failure to enforce existing gun control laws.

But THE SECOND AMENDMENT says we don't have to. Because that means that only criminals would have gunz.

"The decision was made to deploy the Bearcat and establish an entry into the home through the garage," Arnold explained. "This caused Mr. Cowger to finally to begin communicating with our negotiators."

"They drove an armored car through his garage door which scared the shiat out of him and he started talking to the cops."